45+ Short Nail Designs For A Trendy Manicure

Although long nails are super in, many of us have naturally short nails. I used to think short nails were useless, but I now realize that there are so many cute designs for short nails!

The thing is, you need to make sure that your design will actually look good on short nails. For this reason, I recommend looking specifically at inspiration photos of short nails.

You can do virtually any design on shorter nail beds as long as the design works well with your nail shape and size. For example, the photos below include flower nails, cloud nails, abstract nails, reverse color tips, and more super trendy designs that are made to look great on shorter nails.

How To Do Short Nail Art:

If you’re super talented, you can do your nail art at home. You’ll need a variety of tools, so I recommend purchasing a set of nail brushes, plus whatever colors you want to use.

You’ll definitely need to plan out your manicure before diving in. There are many different ways you can do short nails and designs, but you want your manicure to look cohesive and professional when you’re done.

There are also some great nail stickers on Etsy. I love purchasing nail stickers, especially for short nail manicures, because you don’t have a lot of space to work with. I do my base coats, add the stickers, then seal everything with a top coat.

Otherwise, you’ll want to check with your nail technician to be sure they can accomplish the design you’re looking for. Every nail design is unique and requires various techniques.

Short Nail Inspiration Photos:

Here are 40+ of the prettiest short nail art manicures. These are the photos I’m using for inspiration right now.

Feel free to save any of these photos to your phone for later! Just press down then click save to camera roll.

White & Pink Fruit Accents

Strawberries

Soft Blue & Gold Design

Speckled Design

Purple Butterflies

Smiley Face Accent

Lightening Accent

Small Flower Design

Heart Design

Nude Square Nails

Gold & Marble Accents

Small Star Design

Avocado Nails

Geometric Square Tips

Abstract Design

Sage Green

Floral Design

Colorful Abstract Design

Yellow With Stars & Moons

Blue Floral Design

Abstract Nature Design

Pink Rainbow Nails

Blocks Of Neutral Color

Short Cloud Nails

Sunflower Nails

Painted Abstract Nails

Pink & Yellow Designs

Yellow Fruit Design

Abstract Swirl Design

Evil Eye Design

Daisy Nails

Blue & White Color Blocks

Multi-Colored Flowers

Colorful Swirls

Stars & Clouds

Peaches

Various Fruit Design

Gold Leaves

Yellow Smiley Faces

Abstract Faces Design

Abstract Color Blocks

Yin & Yang Design

Blue & White Flower Nails

Muted Blue With Tiny Flowers

Neutral Caramel Swirls

Dainty Flower Accents